Kuiper Belts around other stars

Talk by Dr. Tim D. Pearce, University of Warwick

Our Solar System contains not only planets, but also many smaller bodies like asteroids and comets. These bodies are collectively called ‘debris’, and they tend to be concentrated in ‘debris discs’ like the Asteroid Belt and Kuiper Belt. We can image belts like the Kuiper Belt around other stars too, and these belts show a broad range of shapes and features. These features are often thought to be caused by unseen exoplanets. In this talk I give a broad overview of Kuiper Belts around other stars, including what they look like, how they evolve, and what they teach us about exoplanets and planetary systems. For this talk I assume no prior knowledge, and try to make it accessible to a wide range of seniorities and experience levels.

Dr. Tim D. Pearce
I am a Stephen Hawking Fellow at the University of Warwick. I mainly research ‘debris discs’, around other stars, which are populations of asteroids and comets like the Asteroid Belt and Kuiper Belt in our Solar System. I am particularly interested in how exoplanets interact with debris. My work is mainly theory, but I am also very involved in observations using the James Webb Space Telescope, ALMA and the VLTI.

I have had an unusual career path. I completed a Master’s degree at Durham and a PhD at Cambridge, then left academia. I was selected to be an officer in the Royal Navy, where I specialised in engineering aboard nuclear submarines. I then became Lead Mathematical Developer at leading traffic-modelling company, before returning to academia in December 2019 as a postdoctoral researcher in Jena, Germany. I joined Warwick in Nov 2023 as a Warwick Prize Fellow, and became a Stephen Hawking Fellow in May 2024.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech